Programs

Bio

Meghan L. O'Sullivan is an adjunct senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR), while also serving as the Evron and Jeane Kirkpatrick professor of the practice of international affairs and the director of the Geopolitics of Energy Project at the John F. Kennedy School at Harvard University. Her expertise includes nation-building, counterinsurgency, the geopolitics of energy, decision making in foreign policy, Iraq, Afghanistan, and Pakistan.

From July 2004 to September 2007, she was special assistant to President George W. Bush and also held the position of deputy national security advisor for Iraq and Afghanistan for the last two years of her tenure. She spent two years in total in Iraq, most recently in fall 2008 at the request of Ambassador Ryan Crocker and General Raymond Odierno to help conclude the security agreement and strategic framework agreement between the United States and Iraq. As deputy national security advisor for Iraq and Afghanistan, Dr. O'Sullivan led a team of military and diplomatic personnel, lawyers, economists, and political appointees in the Iraq and Afghan directorates at the National Security Council. In this capacity, she staffed the president and national security advisor on Iraq and Afghanistan and coordinated the efforts of U.S. government agencies working there. Dr. O'Sullivan also held the positions of senior director for strategic planning and Southwest Asia at the NSC; political advisor to the Coalition Provisional Authority administrator and deputy director for governance in Baghdad; chief adviser to the presidential envoy to the Northern Ireland peace process; and fellow at the Brookings Institution.

Her publications include Shrewd Sanctions: Statecraft and State Sponsors of Terrorism (2003) and an edited volume with Richard N. Haass, Honey and Vinegar: Incentives, Sanctions, and Foreign Policy (2000). Dr. O'Sullivan is also a consultant to the National Intelligence Council, and a strategic advisor to John Hess, the chairman and CEO of Hess Corporation, an American independent oil and gas company. She writes a foreign affairs column for Bloomberg View and is a member of the Council of Foreign Relations, the Trilateral Commission, and the Aspen Strategy Group. Dr. O'Sullivan serves as a member of the board of the Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs at Harvard, a director on the board of TechnoServe, and is on the advisory board of the Women's Initiative at the George W. Bush Institute. Dr. O'Sullivan received a BA from Georgetown University, a master's of science in economics and doctorate in politics from Oxford University.

Featured Publications

Meghan L. O'Sullivan says doing more to help the budding democracies in the Arab world isn't just in the interest of Arabs, who are deserving of a better future, but also of the United States, which needs better partners in this part of the world.

All Publications

While the death of King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia may not change the course of Saudi oil policy, Meghan O'Sullivan writes that interesting changes to the Kingdom's cabinet roster and other energy policies could be closer than most realize.

In his efforts to save Iraq, President Obama is right to demand more power-sharing and other political reforms from Iraqi leaders before the United States offers more military assistance. But Obama should not think he can hold off offering such assistance until he secures those reforms—not if he wants to prevent the bloody breakup of the country and a wider regional war.

Russian President Vladimir Putin and Chinese President Xi Jinping are likely to find they have more in common than ever as they meet this week, starting today in Shanghai for a Sino-Russian summit and later in St. Petersburg for an economic forum.

The West is threatening another round of sanctions against Russia in an effort to deter meddling in the May 25 presidential elections in Ukraine. The Obama administration and its allies are placing high hopes in the ability of sanctions to sway Russian actions and generally contest Russia's annexation of Crimea and meddling in the Ukraine.

The Ukraine crisis has spurred calls for ramping up U.S. liquefied natural gas exports to Europe, but lifting the ban on U.S. crude oil exports might help put more pressure on Russia, writes CFR's Meghan L. O'Sullivan.

Robert Blackwill and Meghan O'Sullivan explore the potential of the North American energy revolution, arguing that the diversification of the global energy market will benefit consuming countries and erode the power of traditional producers, a shift with broad geopolitical implications.

On the day before the next and final round of talks begin, Richard N. Haass and Meghan L. O'Sullivan write on why Northern Ireland would be much better off if an agreement along the lines of what is being negotiated by the five parties of the executive were embraced in the Belfast Telegraph.

Israel has discovered substantial natural gas deposits off its shores in the last four years. While these gas finds are not significant in terms of global gas supply (they constitute less than two percent of the world's proven gas reserves), they do appear large enough not only to meet Israel's needs, but to enable Israel to export significant quantities.

Concerning the United States' legacy in Iraq Meghan L. O'Sullivan writes, "Had Saddam not been removed, it is almost certain that we would still be facing a volatile and potentially even more dangerous Middle East."

According to Meghan L. O'Sullivan, "Given the several still-undetermined variables and the wide variety of plausible outcomes, it is too early to bring final judgment on American efforts in Iraq even 10 years on."

With this new American energy renaissance, Meghan L. O'Sullivan says, "The United States needs to rethink its grand strategy; strength in the energy domain can be a major driver of U.S. influence in a world in which American power is more diffuse."

Meghan L. O'Sullivan says, "No single proposal is going to smooth over the acute political division in Egypt. Yet a deal over a constitutional review holds the prospect of at least breaking the impasse."

Campaign 2012

Eliot A. Cohen, Eric Edelman, and Meghan O'Sullivan say, "The true audacity of the Obama administration lies less in its proclaimed foreign policy hopes, than in its insistence that its record is one of foreign policy success. It has, rather, been one of embarrassment, failure, and in some cases, disaster."

Meghan L. O'Sullivan says doing more to help the budding democracies in the Arab world isn't just in the interest of Arabs, who are deserving of a better future, but also of the United States, which needs better partners in this part of the world.

Events

CFR Events

Conference Call ⁄ New York

What to Do About Iraq

Speakers:

Stephen D. Biddle, Adjunct Senior Fellow for Defense Policy, Council on Foreign Relations; Professor of Political Science and International Affairs, George Washington University, Max Boot, Jeane J. Kirkpatrick Senior Fellow for National Security Studies, Council on Foreign Relations, Meghan L. O'Sullivan, Adjunct Senior Fellow, Council on Foreign Relations; Jeane Kirkpatrick Professor of the Practice of International Affairs and Director of the Geopolitics of Energy Project, Harvard Kennedy School